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Given that Alex Pietrangelo has been residing in the United States since he began his life as an NHL regular six years ago in St. Louis, the Team Canada defenceman is well aware of hockey’s niche-sport status south of the border.

So Pietrangelo said he was happy to see the World Cup of Hockey providing the game of his life with a rare moment of bigger-stage exposure. The tournament, after all, is being broadcast by ESPN, the behemoth of the U.S. sports media landscape. Once an NHL partner, ESPN had been out of the hockey-broadcasting business for more than a decade before the tournament began.

“Obviously ESPN is a big part of sports in the States. It’s the channel everybody watches,” Pietrangelo was saying on Monday. “Just talking to people, family and friends down in St. Louis, they’re excited to have hockey back on ESPN.”

There’s more than a faint chance that such hockey-stemming excitement could be dimmed considerably come Tuesday night. The U.S. entry at the World Cup will be facing elimination in its preliminary-round game against Canada at the Air Canada Centre. Thanks to the U.S.’s tournament-opening loss to Europe — and thanks to the short-sprint format of the proceedings — only a win against the 1-0 Canadians can keep alive the Americans’ hope for a semifinal berth. And as for U.S.-based interest in ESPN’s ice-bound product of the moment — well, as much as it appeared to pain Pietrangelo to talk about how the commercial success of ESPN’s return to the rink was residing on such dubious footing, he was well aware that it’s also Canada’s duty to strike its death blow.

“These big events — this and the Olympics — the idea, from the players and from the league, is to grow the game . . . So it wouldn’t (be good for ESPN if the U.S. is eliminated),” Pietrangelo said. “But that’s our job – to spoil the party, right?”

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That’s the job. And as unimpressive as the U.S. has looked to this point, nobody among the Canadian contingent was pretending it was going to be easy.

More than two years removed from losing to Canada in the Olympic semifinal in Sochi, the U.S. roster was purpose-built for Canada-beating redemption. But the philosophy behind that construction — which showed a preference for grit and left the considerable offensive punch of players like Phil Kessel, Tyler Johnson and Kyle Okposo off the roster — means Tuesday’s game will amount to a sort of organizational referendum. Both U.S. coach John Tortorella and GM Dean Lombardi have already been dismissed as hopelessly stuck in the past for preferring intangibles over talent in a tournament in which the 23-and-under North American team has shown the explosive possibility of a team built predominantly on speed and skill.

On Monday, Mike Babcock, coach of Team Canada, spoke of his job at the helm of the tournament favourites as if it were a networking opportunity above all. (“You’re building relationships with more people. You never know — I might need another job one day,” Babcock said). As volunteer gigs go, in other words, presiding over this U.S. team might not exactly go down as a productive resume builder if Tuesday’s result doesn’t go the way of the underdogs.

Members of the 1996 U.S. team that won the inaugural World Cup of Hockey, among them Brett Hull and Mike Modano, have expressed concerns about the state of the squad. U.S.-bred hall of famer Jeremy Roenick blasted the team on Twitter after the loss to Europe.

Still, give Tortorella this: Awash in such noise, he remains publicly committed to his ideals. He wasn’t embarrassed about telling the world that one of the apples of his eye so far in this tournament is Justin Abdelkader, the Red Wings role player. Tortorella said it’ll be a priority on Tuesday to carve out a more prominent role for Abdelkader — as though a player who tallied 44 points in a career season was the key to turning the ship around. Tortorella, mind you, said Abdelkader’s practice reps with superior skill players Patrick Kane and Derek Stepan aren’t necessarily a preview of future deployment.

“We are going to be the aggressive team,” Tortorella said. “We’re coming. We’re going to come. It’s no secret, the way we’ve been built. But blood bath? I don’t want to call it that. We’re going to play the game the right way.”

The right way, of course, is a matter of opinion. Tortorella, for his part, said it won’t be long into Tuesday’s game that he’ll expressing his by shortening his bench. He said the all-star-squad nature of a best-on-best tournament makes it difficult to give the top players the ice time they’re used to. But he’s prepared to try.

“I’ve got to pick certain guys in my lineup that I’m going to find the ice time no matter what, and (Patrick Kane) is one of those guys,” Tortorella said.

More Kane could be a formidable challenge for Canada, and underestimating the U.S. would be a mistake. But looking at the matchup from the southern side of the border, let’s just say there’s a lot of faith riding on the power of what Tortorella called “will” — specifically the willingness to stand in front of the Canada net en route to grinding out a win while playing the game correctly.

“It’s a great spot for the Americans to be, in that type of situation, in that type of atmosphere. If you can’t get motivated to do your best in this type of situation . . . we’ve got the wrong guys,” Tortorella said. “And I don’t think we’ve got the wrong guys.”

Maybe he ought to wait until after Tuesday’s game to weigh in on that matter more definitively.

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